AIR COMPRESSOR FILTER whats good ?

[rav440]

what kind of filter do i want to look for for my AIR COMPRESSOR ?
what are these ? i do not want water or oil to get into my paint or sand so what do i want to look for ?


thanks RANDY
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[rav440]

 

[Todd Wilson]

I bought the cambell Hausfeld unit at the farm store several eyars back for my 71 project and had no troubles with it at all. It was about 120$ or so. Had the moisture beads you had to replace. I bought a big jug of the beads and would change them out as they went from blue to pink with moisture.



Todd

[ck1]

I like the disposable ones at the end of the line, they hook up to the end then your air tool or paint gun.................

[Chatt69chgr]

You didn't say what kind of air compressor you have.  But you have posed two problems:  getting the water out and getting the oil out of the air.  The oil is the easy part.  They sell oil separators at lots of places.  Harbor Freight has one.   Unless you are buying an industrial unit, Campbell Hausfeld brand is what you see oftentimes.  You put these on the output of the tank and they come with various diameter input and output fittings.  Usually, you see 1/4 and 3/8.  Industrial units go 1/2 and bigger.  Most small compressors for home use are 3/8.  Now that we have that problem solved we go on to the hard one.  The water.  It's just about impossible to get the water out using simple vapor type separators where you have any kind of moisture in the air at all.  So that means, you have to employ other means.  One is to use metal pipe and condense the water inside the pipe.  For a small setup, take 20 ft of 1/2 inch black iron pipe and run it along the ceiling dropping it at a slight angle from one end to the other then drop the pipe to the floor and put a ball valve there to flush the line of accumulated water.  Then put a Tee in toward the end away from the compressor up high along the ceiling and go up and then down with your pull off.  Drop down to another ball valve on this line near the floor (to occasionally flush it with) and pull off that drop at chest height with your gauge and a water/oil separator.  Connect your hose here.  This should get rid of most of the water.  For painting, you can put a in-line disposable water filter right before the paint gun.  You could also put a second water separator right at the sand blasting cabinet.  If this doesn't get it, you can try dessicant filters.   They are cylinders that have calcium chloride in them that absorb water.  You can buy the calcium chloride at flower shops (they use to dry flowers) and you can reuse it by drying in the kitchen oven.  You can also buy a refrigerant style water separator that goes inline.  Harbor Freight sells one for somethiing like $300.  This is the way a lot of paint shops do it.  Plus, they use the metal line method too.  Good idea to get the water out of your air since it will rust the insides of air tools and ruin them if you don't.  You already know what it does to paint and sand.